Telecommunication and power cables are present and used in most, if not all, buildings today—including commercial buildings, residential buildings, and others. Of course, such cables are a necessity to bring power to a building, and enable communication with other parties outside the building. Indeed, they are a basic necessity for any building.
It is commonplace to locate and house telecommunication and/or power cables within a tray (or other device). When telecommunication and/or power cables are placed in these trays, a means for bonding and grounding wires and cables contained therein is required, as required by applicable building codes. That is, a means for providing a system that will operate as a sink for (and absorb) an electrical charge is needed. When painted cable trays are employed, current methods of bonding and grounding such trays will often involve leaving certain portions of the tray unpainted, such that an unpainted steel portion of the tray is exposed that may be mechanically spliced together to create a means for electrically bonding and grounding such trays. This rudimentary method, however, is often unsatisfactory because the steel portions of such trays will often corrode and rust over time, thereby compromising the electrical continuity of the bonding and grounding ability thereof.
Accordingly, a need exists for improved devices and methods for bonding and grounding the types of painted cable trays mentioned above and described below.